Why "Cicada"?

Cicadas are a part of our experience living in Texas. They begin their life journey as an egg that is deposited in a groove in a tree limb, feeding on the trees fluids. When the egg hatches and the cicada is ready, it falls to the ground where it finds roots to feed on. Once rooted, it will stay underground from 2 to 17 years. We view ourselves and our communities as cicadas, rooted in the area we inhabit, and growing together to form healthy, strong connections. Cicadas are also known to sing loudly, embodying the voices of those resisting on a daily basis, growing stronger in numbers each season.

Our Story

The Cicada Collective began in Denton, TX through a desire to provide wider access to reproductive healthcare and information. As a hub of conservatism and outdated views on health, the state of Texas has a dark history of creating legislative barriers to reproductive healthcare. The recent passage of HB2–a bill that bans abortions at 20 weeks post-fertilization, requires that any doctor who performs abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, and enforces excessive standards on abortion-providing clinics that will likely close all but five in Texas–proved that the state would do anything to prevent access to abortions and other necessary reproductive healthcare.In response to this dearth in healthcare access, a group of organizers joined in one Denton living room to hash out a plan of action. In our meetings, we discussed the definition of reproductive justice, the meaning of community, activism in a red state, and visions of true accessibility. We had more clearly established who we were and what we planned on doing, and it was time to decide on a name.On the longest day of the year, we joined friends to picnic in a grassy field–“Feels Field,” we’d grown to call it–and welcome in the Summer Solstice. Backed by the percussion of the wildlife around us, our friend shared the story of the cicada. Cicadas, she explained, live as nymphs underground where they grow for three to seventeen years feeding off the roots of trees. Then they tunnel out of the earth, shed their skins, and emerge as adults. Listening to the clicking of the cicadas’ tymbals, we imagined a decade beneath the earth, and the excitement, the fear, and the freshness of finally emerging above the surface.We hoped we could dare to do the same.After that, everything rolled together more quickly than we could have imagined. Before long, we had launched our newly named project into the public and were sifting through applications for our abortion doula training, organized by two local queer people of color who worked alongside the Bay Area Doula Project.Cicadas sing their loudest during the hottest hours of the summer day. Here in Texas, it’s hot as hell, the abortion clinics are dwindling, and the state’s attacks against our healthcare are only gaining in aggression. Damn if we’re not gonna sing our loudest.by Jessica Z